North Korea flag row: Locog blames video producer

Locog has blamed a video producer from a production company for the row over
the Olympic flag mix-up as angry North Korean officials demanded to know
whether the embarrassing episode was staged deliberately.

Flashpoint: The match was overshadowed by a major error before kick-off when the North Korea players were introduced on large screens alongside the South Korea flag of their bitter enemies.Photo: AP

Organisers refused to name the person responsible but said they had offered to resign over the gaffe.

The players from North Korea's women's team walked off the pitch for an hour when they were mistakenly introduced at Hampden Park using the flag of South Korea - their bitter enemies.

There was a delay of at least an hour while the mistake was corrected and the game kicked off shortly before 9pm. North Korea returned to the field to beat opponents Colombia 2-0.

Games organisers Locog later issued an apology over the embarrassing mix-up and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge insisted it was a "simple human mistake" and "there was no political connotation".

David Cameron today sought to play down the blunder, saying it was an "honest mistake" and adding: "We shouldn't over-inflate this episode. It was unfortunate, it shouldn't have happened, and I think we should leave it at that."

But North Korean coach Gun Sin Ui stressed the gravity of the incident and said he planned to take the matter up with Locog as well as Fifa, world football's governing body.

Ui said: "Our players were announced with their photos and names alongside the South Korean national flag. The national flag difference is a big problem.

"Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved properly. Unfortunately it took some time later for the broadcast to be done again properly and we made the decision to go on with the match."

Asked whether he believed the wrong flag had deliberately been used, Ui said: "That was the question I was going to ask LOCOG and FIFA.

"We were angry because our players were shown as if they were from South Korea which affects us very greatly."

However despite the anger, it appeared that details of the fiasco were not being relayed back to ordinary people in the secretive Stalinist country.

A brief match report from the country's official state news agency neglected to mention the mix-up.

In contrast, the flag incident has been extensively reported in the South Korean media with headlines such as "North Koreans enraged by the mistake".

A Locog spokesman said yesterday: “Today ahead of the Women’s football match at Hampden Park, the South Korean flag was shown on a big screen video package instead of the North Korean flag.

"Clearly that is a mistake, we will apologise to the team and the National Olympic Committee and steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again.”

Meanwhile it was suggested that the players may have felt under pressure to "make a fuss" over the mix-up - for fear of being sent to the gulag if they did not.

Korea analyst Aidan Foster-Carter said: "If those footballers had not made the sort of protest they did, they would have a risk of questions being asked when they got back home and perhaps being taken to a not very nice place."